It's been three years, and it's once again time for our forum's very own all-time songs poll!

In 2015, "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles took the #1 spot. Since then, we've had many new users join, and made many new discoveries as a forum. So let's all pitch in to create an amazing selection of songs for our results!

This year, a list must contain a minimum of 200 songs to be included. The maximum will now be 1000 songs. You may post lists with more than 1000 songs, but anything lower than #1000 will not count towards the results.

The definition for a "song" is generally just a singular recorded track. Unlike AM, however, this poll allows for sections of classical pieces as well; for those, you can simply list the composer rather than a recording artist.

Also, in exception to the "single track" rule, "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" will be counted as a singular track, as is the case on AM. If you can think of any other "medley" tracks that could be counted together, bring them up and we'll figure something out.

You can send a spreadsheet containing your list to wanderogreyonder@gmail.com, or just post your list in this thread (or both). If you do post your list in this thread, you should format it in an easily interpretable method (such as "1 | Grimes | Oblivion"). It is also encouraged to cross-reference the AM list (where applicable) so it is easier to consolidate the results.

The due date will be July 7 at midnight EDT (that is, as soon as July 7 ends and July 8 begins). I will issue warnings as the deadline approaches. If you are unable to get your list in on time, just let me know ahead of time and I can give you an extension.

Well, that should be enough rules: let's start making lists! Have fun!

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:
Also, in exception to the "single track" rule, "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" will be counted as a singular track, as is the case on AM, though this will not apply to any other tracks on Abbey Road. If you can think of any other "medley" tracks that could be counted together, bring them up and we'll figure something out.

I can think of several that are usually played as one track on radio:
"We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" Queen
"Foreplay/Long Time" Boston
"Threshold/Jet Airliner" Steve Miller Band
"The Load Out/Stay" Jackson Browne

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:
Also, in exception to the "single track" rule, "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" will be counted as a singular track, as is the case on AM, though this will not apply to any other tracks on Abbey Road. If you can think of any other "medley" tracks that could be counted together, bring them up and we'll figure something out.

I can think of several that are usually played as one track on radio:
"We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" Queen
"Foreplay/Long Time" Boston
"Threshold/Jet Airliner" Steve Miller Band
"The Load Out/Stay" Jackson Browne

There are probably others I'm forgetting.

Are these eligible as a single track?

Queen: I'd say no. They are listed separately on AM, and placed separately in the last poll. People generally seem to consider them as two different songs.
Boston: They are listed as a single track on the album, so definitely yes.
Steve Miller Band: I guess I'll say yes to this one. I don't expect that anybody would vote for "Threshold" on its own, anyways.
Jackson Browne: I'll go with yes. Two users voted for the songs in conjunction last poll, and it's obvious just from listening that they're meant to be connected. I suppose I'm being biased here, but listening to "The Load Out" without immediately following it with "Stay" feels so, so WRONG.

"Music is powerful, man. It speaks to a primal pit in our brains. It makes anyone want to get up and get their knees going!"
— Jake the Dog

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:Unlike AM, however, this poll allows for sections of classical pieces as well; for those, you can simply list the composer rather than a recording artist.

Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and their ilk are eligible? and you can vote by movement? This will radically change my list ; probably more than half of my top 100 will be classical pieces. Coming up with one will definitely take me longer than I planned.

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:Unlike AM, however, this poll allows for sections of classical pieces as well; for those, you can simply list the composer rather than a recording artist.

Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and their ilk are eligible? and you can vote by movement? This will radically change my list ; probably more than half of my top 100 will be classical pieces. Coming up with one will definitely take me longer than I planned.

Ah, I should have mentioned this in the planning thread... They've been included in previous polls, so they will be eligible here too. And yes, you can vote by movement.

"Music is powerful, man. It speaks to a primal pit in our brains. It makes anyone want to get up and get their knees going!"
— Jake the Dog

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:Unlike AM, however, this poll allows for sections of classical pieces as well; for those, you can simply list the composer rather than a recording artist.

Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and their ilk are eligible? and you can vote by movement? This will radically change my list ; probably more than half of my top 100 will be classical pieces. Coming up with one will definitely take me longer than I planned.

Ah, I should have mentioned this in the planning thread... They've been included in previous polls, so they will be eligible here too. And yes, you can vote by movement.

Dexter wrote:
Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and their ilk are eligible? and you can vote by movement? This will radically change my list ; probably more than half of my top 100 will be classical pieces. Coming up with one will definitely take me longer than I planned.

Ah, I should have mentioned this in the planning thread... They've been included in previous polls, so they will be eligible here too. And yes, you can vote by movement.

They're listed separately on AM, so I'd probably list them as two tracks here. Though, I do find it interesting how "Eruption" is played as the instrumental intro to "You Really Got Me", but the former seems more likely to show up on lists on its own than the latter.

"Music is powerful, man. It speaks to a primal pit in our brains. It makes anyone want to get up and get their knees going!"
— Jake the Dog

Zombeels wrote:Also of note, the Easybeats have a song that has been titled both Gonna Have A Good Time and Good Times. It's the same song.

Thanks for letting me know. As for the songs above, I think they can all be counted together, though if anyone has a second opinion, they should speak up (I'm not particularly familiar with any of those songs).

"Music is powerful, man. It speaks to a primal pit in our brains. It makes anyone want to get up and get their knees going!"
— Jake the Dog

I've tried to include a cross-reference to the AM List, giving a nominal ranking to those "bubbling under" in the AM list. I suspect I'll have missed a fair few references given the vaguaries of joining text fields in a database.

I just started making my list, and the first combination case that came up for me is Brain Damage / Eclipse. I see that Brain Damage is listed separately on AM while Eclipse is nowhere to be seen. I would much rather rank them together, since I think the whole is much better than the sum of its parts here, but I'm guessing most of you will leave Eclipse out.

I would have also included Mean Mr. Mustard / Polythene Pam / She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, but I see it has been explicitly ruled against. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window is my favorite of the three parts, but I'm not sure it should be in the top 1,000 on its own.

andyd1010 wrote:I just started making my list, and the first combination case that came up for me is Brain Damage / Eclipse. I see that Brain Damage is listed separately on AM while Eclipse is nowhere to be seen. I would much rather rank them together, since I think the whole is much better than the sum of its parts here, but I'm guessing most of you will leave Eclipse out.

I would have also included Mean Mr. Mustard / Polythene Pam / She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, but I see it has been explicitly ruled against. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window is my favorite of the three parts, but I'm not sure it should be in the top 1,000 on its own.

I'd be willing to consider "Brain Damage/Eclipse" as a single entry, for essentially the same reason as "The Load Out/Stay" above (another situation where the first part is on AM and the second is not). It's a bit more of a tough call, though, since Pink Floyd albums flow so smoothly that it's tough to tell where to draw the line for tracks that should be counted together.

Here's my main concern about the whole deal. Say that among three voters, one votes "Brain Damage", one votes "Eclipse", and one votes "Brain Damage/Eclipse". With that, I could add all the votes to a single entry. However, if among two voters, one votes "Brain Damage/Eclipse" and the other votes for both parts individually, I wouldn't know what to do unless one of them changed their list to accommodate for the other. That's why I want some sense of agreement behind this.

The Abbey Road medley is especially confusing, because many people have counted the entire medley on its own for list purposes, but the forum seems to have agreed that that's a bit overkill. "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" is definitely one thing, and "You Never Give Me Your Money" stands on its own, which leaves the less popular tracks in a bit of limbo. For AM, Henrik seems to be considering the rest of the tracks separately, and in the last poll, several people voted for "Polythene Pam" and "Bathroom Window" by themselves (though never both at once, oddly enough), so I felt that splitting them up was the best decision, but considering nobody has been shown to vote for multiple of those parts separately in the past, it may still be possible to combine them.

"Music is powerful, man. It speaks to a primal pit in our brains. It makes anyone want to get up and get their knees going!"
— Jake the Dog

andyd1010 wrote:I just started making my list, and the first combination case that came up for me is Brain Damage / Eclipse. I see that Brain Damage is listed separately on AM while Eclipse is nowhere to be seen. I would much rather rank them together, since I think the whole is much better than the sum of its parts here, but I'm guessing most of you will leave Eclipse out.

I would have also included Mean Mr. Mustard / Polythene Pam / She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, but I see it has been explicitly ruled against. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window is my favorite of the three parts, but I'm not sure it should be in the top 1,000 on its own.

I'd be willing to consider "Brain Damage/Eclipse" as a single entry, for essentially the same reason as "The Load Out/Stay" above (another situation where the first part is on AM and the second is not). It's a bit more of a tough call, though, since Pink Floyd albums flow so smoothly that it's tough to tell where to draw the line for tracks that should be counted together.

Here's my main concern about the whole deal. Say that among three voters, one votes "Brain Damage", one votes "Eclipse", and one votes "Brain Damage/Eclipse". With that, I could add all the votes to a single entry. However, if among two voters, one votes "Brain Damage/Eclipse" and the other votes for both parts individually, I wouldn't know what to do unless one of them changed their list to accommodate for the other. That's why I want some sense of agreement behind this.

I left off Brain Damage /Eclipse because I only like them together. I will be adding it to my list.

321| Grizzly Bear- Two Weeks
322| Blur- Out of Time
323| Weezer- Buddy Holly
324| New Order- Crystal
325| Prince- Sign ‘O’ the Times
326| New Order- True Faith
327| David Bowie- Ziggy Stardust
328| Beastie Boys- Fight for Your Right (To Party)
329| Phoenix- 1901
330| The Knife- Heartbeats
331| Janelle Monáe (featuring Big Boi)- Tightrope
332| Miles Davis- So What
333| AC/DC- Back in Black
334| The Police- Roxanne
335| Led Zeppelin- Dazed and Confused
336| The Everly Brothers- All I Have to Do Is Dream
337| Sly and the Family Stone- Dance to the Music
338| The Crystals- Da Doo Ron Ron
339| Mott the Hoople- All the Young Dudes
340| Roxy Music- Virginia Plain

421| Roy Orbison- Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)
422| Missy Elliott- Get Ur Freak On
423| The Chemical Brothers- Block Rockin’ Beats
424| The Stone Roses- She Bangs the Drums
425| Weezer- Undone - The Sweater Song
426| Metallica- One
427| Ice Cube- It Was a Good Day
428| Manic Street Preachers- A Design for Life
429| Gorillaz- Clint Eastwood
430| The Hives- Hate to Say I Told You So
431| The Box Tops- The Letter
432| Nirvana- Come As You Are
433| Kamasi Washington- Truth
434| The Supremes- Where Did Our Love Go
435| Wu-Tang Clan- C.R.E.A.M.
436| The Beatles- Rain
437| Rod Stewart- Maggie May
438| The Kingsmen- Louie Louie
439| Morrissey- First of the Gang to Die
440| The Cure- Boys Don’t Cry

I'm glad you like the list! A top 1,000 is something I've wanted to do for some time, but I think it's a little beyond me currently. But hey, I should probably start gathering a list of 501 - 1,000 contenders and have something to show for the inevitable 2021 list!

andyd1010 wrote:I just started making my list, and the first combination case that came up for me is Brain Damage / Eclipse. I see that Brain Damage is listed separately on AM while Eclipse is nowhere to be seen. I would much rather rank them together, since I think the whole is much better than the sum of its parts here, but I'm guessing most of you will leave Eclipse out.

I would have also included Mean Mr. Mustard / Polythene Pam / She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, but I see it has been explicitly ruled against. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window is my favorite of the three parts, but I'm not sure it should be in the top 1,000 on its own.

I think "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came in Though the Bathroom Window" are incomplete pieces of songs that, put together, constitute a whole one and, thus, might be counted as only one track.

Also, I really would like to include Janelle Monae's "Dance or Die/Faster/Locked Inside" as one track. For me, it's impossible to listen to the first piece without listening to the others in sequence. I don't know if each part alone could enter my list but, together, this would likely make my top 50 (it was my #38 in 2015).

andyd1010 wrote:I just started making my list, and the first combination case that came up for me is Brain Damage / Eclipse. I see that Brain Damage is listed separately on AM while Eclipse is nowhere to be seen. I would much rather rank them together, since I think the whole is much better than the sum of its parts here, but I'm guessing most of you will leave Eclipse out.

I would have also included Mean Mr. Mustard / Polythene Pam / She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, but I see it has been explicitly ruled against. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window is my favorite of the three parts, but I'm not sure it should be in the top 1,000 on its own.

I think "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came in Though the Bathroom Window" are incomplete pieces of songs that, put together, constitute a whole one and, thus, might be counted as only one track.

Also, I really would like to include Janelle Monae's "Dance or Die/Faster/Locked Inside" as one track. For me, it's impossible to listen to the first piece without listening to the others in sequence. I don't know if each part alone could enter my list but, together, this would likely make my top 50 (it was my #38 in 2015).

I wouldn't be opposed to either of these. Any objections?

"Music is powerful, man. It speaks to a primal pit in our brains. It makes anyone want to get up and get their knees going!"
— Jake the Dog

To me, if they're listed as separate tracks, I consider them separately. I feel like combining songs should be used very sparingly. With that said, I get that the Abbey Road medley is often considered as one piece. I'll be voting for "Locked Inside" and "Faster" as unique songs though.